Saturday, May 17, 2014

sagan!!

Sagan was back to his scintillating best today. Infact you would have been hard pressed finding anybody at today's start willing to bet against him winning stage 7. The course was perfect for peter, well it's hard to find a stage that isn't or that he doesn't make perfect for his characteristics such is the seemingly endless amount of ability he possesses to race a bike. So with the plan at the start of the day to give peter a shot at victory, everybody on the team had there simple part to play before peter charged through the line before anyone else in the race!

It was again a stinking hot day. It's become the norm this past week however when your racing a bike in it you don't ever get used to it! The attacks were thick and fast at the start and unfortunately for my powerless pins that again meant spending some time at the back of the peleton for the 1st hour or so. While I may not be able to pull the skin off a rice custard at the moment it's lucky I have 7 super strong team mates who kept things under control up the front and eventually let a nice manageable group of 7 riders skip clear. When I break is hard to be like today it means only strong men are in it so you need to get it under control very quickly. Fortunately greenedge had the same plan as us and immediately put a couple of strong guys on the front so that made my job a little easier. So with the race under control and some help up front I settled in at the head of the field for a little pace setting.

My role was very straight forward. That was to Keep the break in check for as long as possible alone and keep the rest of our guys fresh for as long as possible. Ideally that would mean riding the front until such time on the final climb peter gave the nod to light the fuse and dispatch the other sprinters so I knew I only had to make it 90km before I would be unceremoniously dispatched. The plan was actually for GB and ted to help me out but as I am so incredibly useless at the moment I said to them to save there legs and let me keep the gap at a manageable 2min for next 60km's or so and that way they could be the ones to light the fuse on the climb and inturn keep our real strongmen in Koran, body, saba, and George fresh for the final 40km plunge down to the finish. So all luckily went to plan, I had some assistance from big Jens mouris from greenedge to trade turns with and we had no dramas keeping the 7 men up the road in check. Them like clock work as the final climb ramped up ted and GB hit the turbo.

There acceleration was instantly effective and by the time I was unceremoniously dispatched from the back of the peleton cav had also been dropped. Up ahead I could see many more gaps opening in the bunch and just knew that the man with the fastest and freshest legs up the front was wearing a cannondale jersey and that the victory seemed a formality. Off course this wasn't the reality and while only 50 riders remained in the front group by the top of the climb our boys still had plenty of work to shut down the final seconds to the breakaway.

From the top of the climb to the finish body, koren, saba, and George covered everything and perfectly executed the final phase to the days plan. That being to ensure that when the finish line comes into sight peter was in a position to let rip and cross the line first. Off course I can't give a detailed description on what happened in those final km's as I was further back than full back by that stage but I know the boys where all over everything like a rash to ensure the group sprint would decide the winner. Sure enough as the sprint opened up the green machines most prolific winner kicked like a mule and took yet another dominant and ever so stylish victory. Peter seems to win with such ease that it seems almost a formality and in the end he makes it look that way that's for sure. The thing that makes peter so special is that every rider in that field knew what we were doing all day and planning and in the end no body could do anything to stop him crossing the finish line first. Yep, there are not many compliments or praises left for Mr peter sagan but a performance like today just reiterates what an absolute superstar he is. Not only that but he is the most humble and enjoyable captain to ride for. Anyways a great day for peter, the team and cannondale. The win certainly puts a spark in the tail of the team and tomorrow represents another opportunity so time for some much needed rejuvenation sleep and get up and do it all again tomorrow.